Esperanto ASAP- Chapter 6(1)
PERSONAL PRONOUNS : PERSONAJ PRONOMOJ
^CAPITRO 6 (SES) Parto 1
 
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1). Introduction

We have already met the personal pronouns in Chapter 3 but since they can replace nouns they must also be able to take the accusative ending e.g. Li vidis ^gin (He saw it); La patro amas la filinon, kaj ^si lin (The father loves his daughter and she him)

It is to be remembered that vi (you) can be singular or plural and this is reflected in an agreeing adjective e.g.
Vi estas inteligenta                (You (singular) are intelligent)
Vi estas pigraj                         (You (plural) are lazy)

2). Oni

A useful pronoun is oni which corresponds to the English 'one', the French 'on' and the German 'man'. In Esperanto it is used commonly to replace an English passive. The passive voice (although it can be expressed with a compound verb) is infrequent in Esperanto. e.g.

He has been shot                        Oni pafis lin  (i.e. one shot him) 

3). Personal adjectives

The personal pronouns can be changed into adjectives by adding the -a ending. They then behave as do all other adjectives e.g

mia        my        ^sia        her 

Although the personal adjectives usually come before their noun, mia can follow the noun to show affection e.g

mia patrino        my mother        patrino mia         mother dear 

When the use is obvious the personal adjective is often replaced by la e.g.

Mi kovris la okulojn                        I covered my eyes  (E: ocular) 
^si amas la patron                         She loves her father   

4). Emphasis

To translate the emphatic myself, yourself etc in English we use the word mem.

Mi mem faros ^gin                        I shall do it myself                        (F : faire) 

5). Reflexive Pronoun

A reflexive pronoun when used as the object reflects back in some way to the subject e.g. 'I wash' is not really clear- are you washing yourself, clothes or your car? In Esperanto we use a reflexive

Mi lavas min                                  I wash (myself)                           (E: lather,F: laver) 

The most important reflexive, however, is the pronoun si e.g.

La filino kombis al si la harojn                 (The daughter combed for herself the hair i.e. combed her hair)   

Notice, as in French, haro (a single hair), haroj (hair,head of hair)

The reflexive again enables Esperanto to be less ambiguous then English e.g. Peter met George and his son.
Whose son ? Peter's or George's?
In Esperanto we can use either

Petro renkontis Georgon kaj lian filon or Petro renkontis Georgon kaj sian filon.

In the first the personal adjective is non-reflexive (lian) and so does not refer to the subject Petro. So the son is George's.
In the second the reflexive adjective (sian) is used and refers back to the subject Petro. This time the son is Peter's.

The reflexive pronouns and adjectives can cause trouble but not if one remembers the following simple rules :
a. The reflexive si can only refer to the third person (singular or plural).
b. It can never be part of the subject and so must either be accusative (with the -n) ending, must be used predicatively or must follow a preposition.
c. It must reflect back to the subject of its clause.


Consider the following cases :

1).Peter and his brother came to my house.
We cannot use si because of rule (b) - it is part of the subject and so
Petro kaj lia frato venis al mia domo        (E: fraternal)

2).Peter begged George to speak to his brother
In English it is not clear whose brother (Peter's or George's). In Esperanto we cannot use sia unless it refers to the subject- but what is the subject? Peter is subject of the verb 'begged' whereas George is the object of 'begged' and at the same time the subject of 'to speak'.

Petro petis Georgon paroli al sia frato

Here the sia refers to the subject of its clause i.e. the subject of the verb paroli. Thus it refers to George - even though it is in the accusative being the object of the previous verb petis.
So this means Peter begged George to talk to George's brother

Petro petis Georgon paroli al lia frato

Lia cannot refer to the subject George and so must refer to some other noun (Peter). Here the meaning is Peter begged George to talk to Peter's brother.

3) Consider this apparent difficulty :

La homoj elektis lin ilia prezidanto        (The men elected him their president)                (E : Homo sapiens)

Does not 'their' refer back to the subject 'the men'?

Careful analysis will show that ilia prezidanto to be in the nominative (-o ending). It cannot be the object, therfore, of elektis. The sentence really is 'The men elected him (to be) their president and so there are two verbs elektis and the understood esti.

Thus ilia prezidanto refers to the subject of the understood verb 'to be' i.e. to lin and not to the subject of a different clause with a different verb (i.e. la homoj and elektis) and so sia must not be used.

The exact use of the reflexive in the last few examples is advanced and need not trouble the beginner too much - even experts can get into trouble with this! It is only given here for completeness.

6). Mine

Mine is used in English to replace the personal adjective and a noun e.g.
Here is his book - No, it's mine (i.e. my book)


In Esperanto it is usually translated by the personal adjective with the definite article i.e. la mia. So we have
Jen lia libro. Ne- ^gi estas la mia.

(Jen is used for 'here is','there is' or even 'Behold!'. It corresponds to the French voici.

In the other persons we use in English yours, his, hers, its, ours and theirs (and the antiquated thine). In Esperanto it is la via, la lia etc.


* notice that infano does mean child and not infant



animal   
best/-o
E : beast
to learn    
lern/-i
beer     
bier/-o 

to leave
forir/-i
for = far,distant; iri = to go
child *   
infan/-o *
E : infant
to prefer
prefer/-i

coffee   
kaf/-o
F : café
to send
send/-i  

cupboard    
^srank/-o  

blue
blu/-a 

doll    
pup/-o
E : puppet
possibly
eble 

friend    
amik/-o
E : amicable
soon
baldaû 
G : bald
furniture (piece of)  
mebl/-o
F : meuble
for
por
hand  
man/-o
E : manual
near
apud
L : apud
to agree       
konsent/-i
E : consent
while
dum

to drink +  
trink/-i + 

however
tamen
L : tamen
+ notice that drinki means to drink (alcohol) to excess, to booze.
CONTINUE
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